Mass-burn refuse-to-energy technology: A united states case study

Summary

As landfill sites reach capacity and are under environmental regulations to close, communities across America face solid waste disposal crises. The City of Baltimore, Maryland, after initially choosing an experimental technology which failed, turned to a proven mass-burn resource recovery system for solid waste disposal. Through a process called privatization, the City shielded itself from financial risk associated with the operation of the plant. Signal Environmental Systems owns and operates the refuse-to-energy facility, which features a mass-burn technology developed in Switzerland by Von Roll, Inc., and charges the City a service fee per ton of refuse processed.

The success of the partnership between the public and private sectors for the provision of efficient and reliable solid waste disposal in the City and County of Baltimore can serve as a model for developing and implementing technologies to meet the many other challenges facing the country and the world as a whole.